Can you hear the echoes now, stronger than words?
First, a meme. AN IMPORTANT ONE.
The How's My Driving? Meme
Okay so. Soul Eater. I finished it a few days ago.
Where to begin, where to begin.
LET'S START WITH THE FANTARDING.
STEEEEEIN. OH MY GOD. DR. STEIN. YOU MOTHERFUCKER. WE NEED TO HANG OUT. YOU CAN FATHER MY BABIES. WHATEVER YOU DO THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME OF YOU AND ME TOGETHER BECAUSE NO CHARACTER HAS MADE ME SQUEE THIS MUCH IN A LONG TIME. HE'S SUCH A FUCKING BAMF I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO START WITH HIM. Oh, and I ship him with Maka's dad like NOBODY'S BUSINESS because COME ON, was anybody even watching his fight with Crona, or the fight against Medusa? Though then I also kind of wanted him and Medusa to make out, like REALLY BADLY, WHY WAS THEIR MAKEOUT INTERRUPTED? WHYYYY? No, really. This guy is just an unstoppable force of awesomeness. I had freaking fantard fits every time he showed up on screen.
Oh, and more fantarding.
DEATH THE MOTHERFUCKING KID. I LOVE YOUR STYLE. YOU AND YOUR FLYING SKATEBOARD AND YOUR AWESOME GUNSLINGYNESS, YOU MAKE WATCHING FIGHT SCENES FUN AGAIN. And I mean that, because 90% of anime fight scenes are the same HIT PUNCH KICK DODGE SWING HIT DODGE JUMP FEINT...formula, over and over.
Okay, now that that's over. Let's talk about the icky stuff that I didn't like. The plot was...typical. Really typical. It was far too predictable for words, not really any kind of original, and actually there were some massive gaping holes in it. I'm talking MASSIVE. And it didn't even throw any twists at me. Well, if there sure were twists, they must've warned me like fifty million times beforehand, because there was absolutely nothing unexpected. And the ending? So, she finishes everything with a FALCON PUUUUNCH that comes from NOWHERE? And all of a sudden she's a weapon? Way to pull that out of your ass. That came from nowhere, and didn't even lend anything to...well...anything! BIG-LIPPED ALLIGATOR MOMENT.
And seriously, they really had the makings for an epic ending there. Seeing all the badassery that they had in their fight with Mr. Mosquito, I really would have loved a massive three-way-all-out-we-have-the-courage-to-defeat-you triple attack from Kid, Black Star, and Maka. Especially since Black Star and Kid's SUPER ULTIMATE MEGA COOL WE-JUST-HAD-A-REVELATION attacks didn't really seem to do much of...anything except destroy the outer shell or whatever.
Uh, other stuff that bugged me. Plot holes. Wow. This show loved introducing concepts then throwing them out the window. Maybe this is just because I didn't read the manga or anything, but I felt like they would introduce something that might really affect the plot, play with it for an episode or two, then just forget about it, which is...kind of weird, because some of this stuff was actually pretty interesting, like Black Star's backstory and such.
Some of the humour was...meh. It was inconsistent. Some episodes I would be laughing my ass of, and other episodes I'd be wondering when they could stop with the retarded nosebleed jokes and get on with the goddamn plot. It didn't even seem to be consistent across "filler" episodes and the actual plotty ones. I think that might just be me though. Though it was especially irritating when big fights or really important exposition were interrupted by such jokes.
Okay, and now we can move on to the genuinely good stuff!
Characters! MMMMM, Development! Everyone, even a lot of the more "minor" characters, seemed to grow and change from start to finish. All of the main seven definitely had SIGNIFICANT changes in attitude and maturity, and everyone grew in one way or another. And that's really saying something. You know what it is? It's awesome. That's the key to making characters that I care about, because even if I don't like them much at the start, a character who grows is a character who earns my respect. Sounds stupid? Okay, example time. The first few times Crona showed up, I really didn't like him. He was a fraidy cat and a wimp and Medusa pretty much kicked him around all the time. By the end? He's ready to go face her down himself. Sure, he doesn't really have the conviction to kill her or anything, but he stands up to her, which is a pretty big deal, if you ask me.
Oh, and character designs. Actually, art. Art direction and art style in general. A big plus. Being the type of anime it was, it could have fallen into any one of like, a zillion typical-ass-animu traps, but it really didn't. It wasn't the most original art style in the world, but it was funky and fun and fit the humour quite well. I liked the look and feel of Death City, the little Sun and Moon and their emotes, and the weird perspective that totally didn't make any sense but was somehow still really cool. As for character designs, I really like that everyone had a theme, and they seemed to stick to it. I think I talked about this in an earlier post, but giving characters "themes" for how they look is much more common in western animation, and it's something I'd like to see done a lot more often in anime. It happens a lot in RPGs, but I hardly ever see it carry over to anime or manga very well. I also adored the color schemes, and the cool...mock-stained-glass look that the first ending had.
Overall, it was a cute and fun ride. Once I've stopped freaking out over how AWESOME Stein is, I'll try to sit down and actually take Kuroshitsuji seriously when I try to watch it, so I can write a big long TL;DR review that you don't care about for it the way I did with Soul Eater. But...honestly, this is nice! I enjoyed it in a way I hadn't enjoyed anime in quite some time (though maybe I was just waiting for the horrible taste that the putrid fail that was Death Note was to sort of...ebb out of my mouth a little. God, I could rant about how awful that was for ages).
Oh, and I'm not ignoring comments or RP CR, I'm just...in zombie mode. I PROMISE I'LL GET BACK TO YOUUUUUU.
The How's My Driving? Meme
Okay so. Soul Eater. I finished it a few days ago.
Where to begin, where to begin.
LET'S START WITH THE FANTARDING.
STEEEEEIN. OH MY GOD. DR. STEIN. YOU MOTHERFUCKER. WE NEED TO HANG OUT. YOU CAN FATHER MY BABIES. WHATEVER YOU DO THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME OF YOU AND ME TOGETHER BECAUSE NO CHARACTER HAS MADE ME SQUEE THIS MUCH IN A LONG TIME. HE'S SUCH A FUCKING BAMF I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO START WITH HIM. Oh, and I ship him with Maka's dad like NOBODY'S BUSINESS because COME ON, was anybody even watching his fight with Crona, or the fight against Medusa? Though then I also kind of wanted him and Medusa to make out, like REALLY BADLY, WHY WAS THEIR MAKEOUT INTERRUPTED? WHYYYY? No, really. This guy is just an unstoppable force of awesomeness. I had freaking fantard fits every time he showed up on screen.
Oh, and more fantarding.
DEATH THE MOTHERFUCKING KID. I LOVE YOUR STYLE. YOU AND YOUR FLYING SKATEBOARD AND YOUR AWESOME GUNSLINGYNESS, YOU MAKE WATCHING FIGHT SCENES FUN AGAIN. And I mean that, because 90% of anime fight scenes are the same HIT PUNCH KICK DODGE SWING HIT DODGE JUMP FEINT...formula, over and over.
Okay, now that that's over. Let's talk about the icky stuff that I didn't like. The plot was...typical. Really typical. It was far too predictable for words, not really any kind of original, and actually there were some massive gaping holes in it. I'm talking MASSIVE. And it didn't even throw any twists at me. Well, if there sure were twists, they must've warned me like fifty million times beforehand, because there was absolutely nothing unexpected. And the ending? So, she finishes everything with a FALCON PUUUUNCH that comes from NOWHERE? And all of a sudden she's a weapon? Way to pull that out of your ass. That came from nowhere, and didn't even lend anything to...well...anything! BIG-LIPPED ALLIGATOR MOMENT.
And seriously, they really had the makings for an epic ending there. Seeing all the badassery that they had in their fight with Mr. Mosquito, I really would have loved a massive three-way-all-out-we-have-the-courage-to-defeat-you triple attack from Kid, Black Star, and Maka. Especially since Black Star and Kid's SUPER ULTIMATE MEGA COOL WE-JUST-HAD-A-REVELATION attacks didn't really seem to do much of...anything except destroy the outer shell or whatever.
Uh, other stuff that bugged me. Plot holes. Wow. This show loved introducing concepts then throwing them out the window. Maybe this is just because I didn't read the manga or anything, but I felt like they would introduce something that might really affect the plot, play with it for an episode or two, then just forget about it, which is...kind of weird, because some of this stuff was actually pretty interesting, like Black Star's backstory and such.
Some of the humour was...meh. It was inconsistent. Some episodes I would be laughing my ass of, and other episodes I'd be wondering when they could stop with the retarded nosebleed jokes and get on with the goddamn plot. It didn't even seem to be consistent across "filler" episodes and the actual plotty ones. I think that might just be me though. Though it was especially irritating when big fights or really important exposition were interrupted by such jokes.
Okay, and now we can move on to the genuinely good stuff!
Characters! MMMMM, Development! Everyone, even a lot of the more "minor" characters, seemed to grow and change from start to finish. All of the main seven definitely had SIGNIFICANT changes in attitude and maturity, and everyone grew in one way or another. And that's really saying something. You know what it is? It's awesome. That's the key to making characters that I care about, because even if I don't like them much at the start, a character who grows is a character who earns my respect. Sounds stupid? Okay, example time. The first few times Crona showed up, I really didn't like him. He was a fraidy cat and a wimp and Medusa pretty much kicked him around all the time. By the end? He's ready to go face her down himself. Sure, he doesn't really have the conviction to kill her or anything, but he stands up to her, which is a pretty big deal, if you ask me.
Oh, and character designs. Actually, art. Art direction and art style in general. A big plus. Being the type of anime it was, it could have fallen into any one of like, a zillion typical-ass-animu traps, but it really didn't. It wasn't the most original art style in the world, but it was funky and fun and fit the humour quite well. I liked the look and feel of Death City, the little Sun and Moon and their emotes, and the weird perspective that totally didn't make any sense but was somehow still really cool. As for character designs, I really like that everyone had a theme, and they seemed to stick to it. I think I talked about this in an earlier post, but giving characters "themes" for how they look is much more common in western animation, and it's something I'd like to see done a lot more often in anime. It happens a lot in RPGs, but I hardly ever see it carry over to anime or manga very well. I also adored the color schemes, and the cool...mock-stained-glass look that the first ending had.
Overall, it was a cute and fun ride. Once I've stopped freaking out over how AWESOME Stein is, I'll try to sit down and actually take Kuroshitsuji seriously when I try to watch it, so I can write a big long TL;DR review that you don't care about for it the way I did with Soul Eater. But...honestly, this is nice! I enjoyed it in a way I hadn't enjoyed anime in quite some time (though maybe I was just waiting for the horrible taste that the putrid fail that was Death Note was to sort of...ebb out of my mouth a little. God, I could rant about how awful that was for ages).
Oh, and I'm not ignoring comments or RP CR, I'm just...in zombie mode. I PROMISE I'LL GET BACK TO YOUUUUUU.